The world of freelancers is currently 1.1 billion strong, and these numbers are only set to grow.
Many companies and smaller businesses who choose to work with freelancers and are investing in the best technologies to manage them. These technologies help with managing schedules, setting deadlines, invoicing, communication, and more.
Working with freelancers has many advantages, including the cost to the company and the diversity of skill sets on offer.
However, it also has its challenges.
Most freelancers will have several clients at any given time, and as such, you need to invest in effective technologies to manage them productively. Added to this, you need reliable systems when it comes to paying freelancers.
Since freelancers are independent contractors rather than employees, clear communication is a must when it comes to expectations, payment, deadlines, and expected deliverables. Several great technologies can help you with the managing of freelancers to ensure the best for your business.
Considerations
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by all the business technologies on offer?
There are so many apps and programs on the market.
When it comes to managing freelancers, their projects, and their payments, it can understandably seem stressful at first glance.
Communication is key when you’re working with freelancers, and you want to choose technologies that simplify the process.
Turnkey solutions are a popular choice and enable the company and freelancers to access a common dashboard where all projects can be listed, and communication can occur. As such, we’ve chosen the top technologies for managing freelancers, invoices, communication, projects, and more.
Best Freelance Management Technologies
While managing freelancers requires great communication and the ability to make them feel like part of the team without them being in the office, some fantastic tools can help you out and make the process a breeze.
For Communication: Slack
Price: Standard $7.30, Plus $13.50
Slack has is a premium communication platform used by many businesses that manage freelancers. It works across different platforms and devices and offers some impressive features including group chats, real-time collaboration, alerts, tracking project milestones, and protected data.
For extra ease, you can sync the app with other platforms such as DropBox and Google Drive. Everything uploaded to Slack is also easily searchable and this keeps all work accessible and means that anyone in that particular channel can access the work. This enhances communication within a team and ensures that everyone is on the same page.
For Payment: Wave Accounting
Price: Free, Users pay for payment processing, payroll, or professional bookkeeping if needed
How to pay contractors is one of the most important things about managing freelancers. When you are working with different contractors, invoicing can get complicated. This is where Wave Accounting comes in to save the day as it has been specifically designed for companies with lots of employees or workers. The cloud-based app can track expenses and earnings and allows freelancers to link payment options such as Paypal or their bank accounts.
Wave ultimately keeps a record of all invoices and payments made and makes accounting easy. Features include accounting, billing, invoicing, financial management, credit card processing, payroll management, and receipt scanning.
For Project Management: Trello
Price: Free, Business $12.50 per month, or $10 a month billed annually
Trello is a brilliant project management platform that allows business owners and freelancers to collaborate effectively via the main dashboard that is composed of lists. The calendar-style layout is easy to read and allows administrators to divide projects via lists to various contractors. This enables freelancers to quickly find the projects assigned to them and means that users can keep all their data in one area. Freelancers can add comments, pictures, and notes as needed.
For added functionality and ease, Trello can connect to other communication apps such as Slack and Google Drive.
Or: Asana
Price: Free for teams of up to 15, Premium $10.99, Business $24.99
If you want to save time and get jobs done quickly and effectively, Asana is a great mobile and web-based platform and allows teams to track, manage, and organize their work.
It is a popular platform for managing remote teams, and the integrated calendar function allows you to schedule various projects, track progress and set deadlines with ease. Thanks to the app’s specialized focus mode, freelancers can also easily focus on the task at hand without feeling overwhelmed.
There is also a simple messaging platform for quick communication, and users can upload various files to the program, regardless of the format. Asana also generates real-time progress reports to track work progress. It’s a great technology system for setting team goals, managing projects, and ensuring effective communication.
Conclusion
Investing in technologies to manage freelancers can be a great support to any business. These apps and programs enable you to streamline workflow, enhance communication, set projects quickly, monitor progress, and manage and keep track of payments. They take the stress out of managing multiple people at a time and enable dynamic engagement between freelancers and employers.
What freelance managing systems have you found most effective? Share with us below.